Setting up an aviary

[prettybird]

I bought a huge aviary off trademe, but its gonna need a big upgrade to make it weather proof for my budgies.

I intend to cover the roof with clear corrugated roofing, plywood the back and maybe add some form of insulation behind the plywood.

If you are aviary savvy, any advice would be much appreciated.  

 It is in 3 sections at this stage, with a door into each.  5m wide. 1.8m deep. 2.35m high.

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @prettybird. Many thanks for your questions, I'd be happy to kick-off the discussion.

It fantastic to have you join us and we look forward to seeing your project come together. That is certainly a good-sized aviary, you must be particularly passionate about Aviculture. What type of birds do you intend on keeping in the aviary? This might affect some recommendations for building components. For example, if Cockatoos were to be kept in there, I would be concerned about the use of ply and insulation as it will very quickly turn into a game of what can I pick off. You might want to consider sandwiching the insulation between two thin sheets of ply and having it on the outside of the cage to prevent this.

For the roofing, it might be advisable to look at a tint in grey to cut some sunlight, especially if the aviary is being located in full sun. The heat generated by the clear will be quite substantial. 

I look forward to hearing from our fantastic members and finding out which ones are knowledgable with aviaries.

Mitchell

[prettybird]

Hi Mitchell, thanx fir ur ideas and suggestions, every little bit helps!! I'm not mad about birds in particular-I just tend to fall in love with most animals and end up making them a big part of my life.  I have 7 budgies and plan to get some cockateils when then aviary is set up.  I wanted the birds to have some space to fly properly-hence the rather long shape.....but I will still need to take out 1 or 2 interior walls to create the bigger flight.  Unfortunately the mesh is 25mm so I also need to remedy it all in a smaller gauge of chicken wire - I thought I would leave what's already on it there...and add the finer mesh on inside of aviary frame.

Thanx for ur advice about clear roof being too hot....I hadn't thought of that!  I live in NZ east coast Napier, and summers can get very hot at 35degrees.  I hope someone out there is a bird lover...would be great to get some tips from their experiences wiv aviary builds.

[Jason]

@Brad,

Would you be able to share your experience with @prettybird? I'm sure any contribution to the discussion would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Jason